3 ways to make gifting cookbooks more personal

I used to hate cookbooks. I remember thinking, “why would I use a cookbook when I could just google a recipe, read reviews, and find the best one?!”. In today’s “digital world”, slowing down and reading a cookbook seems like a lot of effort, but once you dig into cookbooks, you’ll see how much beautiful storytelling is there to enjoy. You’ll also realize how much you can learn from the chefs describing their techniques, backgrounds, and modifications. Now I love gifting cookbooks to loved ones because it’s a special way of sharing something that’s really important to me. Here are a few ways I’ve made gifting cookbooks more personal over the years:

Choose a cookbook you love and add sticky notes to your favourite recipes.

Rather than giving someone a cookbook and generally saying, “I love it!”, add sticky notes to the pages of your favourite recipes and explain what you love about it. Examples:

• This is my favourite weekday meal. Super tasty and fast to cook.

• I make these pancakes anytime I feel like something a bit fancier for brunch.

• This salad dressing is amazing! I make it every Sunday so that I have it in the fridge for the week!

This will help your friend or family member navigate the cookbook easily, plus it allows you to share your favourite recipes.

Package up ingredients featured in the cookbook and stock their pantry!

Some cookbooks call for ingredients that you know your friend likely doesn’t have on hand -  especially if it’s a regional cuisine cookbook that may call for whole spices or pantry items like ghee, tahini, or a specific type of lentil. Depending on your budget, you could bundle some of these ingredients with the cookbook when you gift it so they’re ready to start cooking right away.

Choose a cookbook you’ve been eyeing as well, and schedule a virtual cooking hang with your friend!

Is there a cookbook you’ve been wanting to buy for yourself? Gifting the same cookbook to your friend can allow you to schedule time to explore the recipes together. Maybe you do a monthly cookbook club where you Zoom while trying out the same recipe. Or if you’re in the same city but still social distancing, you could each choose different recipes to cook and swap half the portions with each other. Exploring a new cookbook together can be a great way to connect!

---

I hope you find this guide helpful! Leave a comment if you’d like to see more content like this!

Isolation Easter Dinner for 1!

Earlier this week I posted on Instagram about my plans for my Easter dinner for 1. Here is my rough schedule of activities and how I think through a dinner with multiple components aka how to prep it all!

Day before prep:

• Roast beets

• Make vinaigrette/marinade for beets

• Make pea condiment

Other things you could do the day before if you have the fridge space:

• Slice potatoes for scalloped potatoes and store them in the fridge covered in water

• Make pie crust dough and store in the fridge

Roast beets:

• Preheat oven to 425

• Wash beets and dry

• Trim off any odd bits or the ends if they look extra dirty

• Wrap each beet in tin foil with a little olive oil

• Place on a cookie sheet and roast under a cake tester inserts easily (time depends on the size of the beets - for small it could be 20-30 mins, for larger beets it could take an hour)

• Allow to cool completely before peeling

Pea condiment:

Inspired by this article: Bon Appetit Basically: Pea Pesto

• Steam 2 cups of frozen peas until bright green and tender, remove from heat and cool

• Place in a food processor with 2 garlic cloves, zest of 1 lemon, 3 tsp of apple cider vinegar, 2 tbsp olive oil, ½ tsp red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, and process on high until smooth. If you have any soft herbs like mint or parsley they would go great in here.

• Taste and adjust

• Store in a container in the fridge

Beet salad vinaigrette/marinade:

• ⅓ cup apple cider vinegar

• 1.5 tbsp honey

• ¼ cup olive oil

• Salt and pepper

• Shake in a mason jar until emulsified!

Once the beets are cool, peel and slice into ¾ cm slices. Put into a container and pour over half of the vinaigrette to store overnight so that the beets marinate. Store the remaining vinaigrette in the fridge.

Day of:

Morning:

• Prep white buns (I am going to halve this recipe: Fraiche Living Perfect White Buns

• Make pie (I am going to make a variation of this: Bon Appetit Lemon Meringue Pie, but will use different citrus fruits because I don’t have enough lemon. I’ll freeze the second pie crust for future use)

Afternoon:

Prepare and cook the lamb (I always start with the meat first to ensure there’s time for it to cook, and it can always rest while everything else cooks):

Lamb prep: take lamb out of fridge, season generously with salt and pepper and let it sit at room temperature for about 1 hour so it loses its chill

• Make crust for lamb

  • I’m going to do a riff on the crust from this recipe: Food & Wine Parmesan and Herb Crusted Beef Tenderloin

  • Instead of parmesan I think I will add lemon zest

• Assemble lamb:

  • I’m then going to rub dijon mustard over the lamb to give something for the crust to stick to. I will then apply the crust, drizzle some olive oil over it and roast it at 325 until I reach 140F internal temp for medium lamb. From my research it looks like it will take 1.5 hours or so for my 3lb lamb

  • Will let it rest at room temp before slicing

Scalloped Potato prep:

• While the lamb is roasting I’ll prep the scalloped potatoes. I am choosing to not make mine with cheese because I don’t think it will go with the lamb. I’m just going to do a simple milk, onion, butter combo. On the stove I’ll heat 2 cups of milk with 2 tbsp of butter, a bay leaf and some thyme. Heat on low, being careful to not scorch or curdle the milk. Season well with salt and pepper.

• Meanwhile I’ll slice my potatoes thinly, along with 1 white onion. I just have 2 potatoes. I’ll layer the potatoes and onions in a baking dish and pour over the milk mixture.

• Once the lamb is out of the oven, I’ll bake the scallop potatoes (covered) at 325F until fork tender (30-45 mins). I’ll take the tinfoil off for the last few mins and turn it onto broil to get a little colour on top. 

Roasted veg prep:

• While the scalloped potatoes are in, I’ll prep the roasted veg. I have cabbage, some brussel sprouts, turnip and swiss chard stems. I’ll chop everything up and spread it evenly onto a lined baking sheet. I will then drizzle olive oil and mix the veg with 2 tbsp of grainy mustard so everything is evenly coated. Season with salt and pepper. Roast at 400 until everything is tender and starting to deepen in colour. Once the veg is out of the oven I’ll drizzle some honey and add a squeeze of lemon juice.

Bake white buns - always leave these for last so they’re fresh out of the oven! When they come out of the oven you can add everything back in the oven to reheat.

Assemble salad:

• Layer the beets on the bottom of the plate

• Add orange segments

• Crumble goat cheese

• Sprinkle on some toasted nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds, whatever you have)

• Top with greens if you have any, tossed in the remaining vinaigrette (arugula, mixed greens, pea shoots work!)

EDIT: It all worked out! Pictures added!

Isolation Recipes and Thoughts

Keeping a running list here of recipes I’ve been making in isolation and how I’m thinking about the ingredients I have on hand! 

Sweets:

I have a limited amount of butter, no milk, and 1 dozen eggs so I’ve been thinking a lot about which baked goods to put all my eggs in (LITERALLY). Here are my choices to date. 

• I made these Tahini Billionaire Bars from Bon Appetit last night. If you don’t have tahini you could swap in a different nut butter in its place. Honestly, the crust alone is worth it. I cut them up into smaller squares and wrapped them in packets of four for my freezer (parchment paper, then tin foil). TBD on how my freezer approach goes but a whole batch is too much for one person.

  • Saved my 2 egg whites leftover from this recipe. Will likely use as a binder for granola later this week.

• Working on typing up my Nanny’s Banana Bread recipe, will post here later this week! I sliced up the bread and froze the slices individually so that I can heat it up in the oven whenever I want a toasty banana bread treat! Top with butter and flaky sea salt

Lunches:

• Tuna melts have been getting me through. I recommend going beyond mayo and cheese and try different flavours: lots of lemon juice, capers, diced crunchy vegetables (red pepper, snap peas, carrots), pickles, grainy mustard, dijon mustard, sun-dried tomato - the world is your oyster/tuna!

• I haven’t embarked on this yet but before isolation, I did buy 4 sweet potatoes in anticipation this day would come. Once I work through my fresh produce I think I’ll start making loaded sweet potatoes for lunches. One of my fav inspos is The First Mess Sweet Potato Fries with Miso Gravy - sometimes I do this as a topped sweet potato rather than fries. 

  • Other things I’ve been thinking about with my sweet potatoes: pierogis and gnocchi. TBD if I act on any of these thoughts.

Snacks:

• I’ve been making Molly Yeh’s Scallion Pancakes ever since her cookbook came out a few years ago. I saw that Bon Appetit posted a recipe this week but their dough requires a 1 hour rest, whereas Molly’s only requires 20 mins. If you don’t have sesame oil you can always use a neutral oil like vegetable or canola. I do hoisin and sriracha as a dipping sauce.

• ORANGES - I am very grateful for Fresh City Farms, who is keeping me out of the grocery stores and safe in my apartment. It is a beautiful thing that it is citrus season right now. Check with your local farmer’s markets and CSA baskets - many are still delivering.

Dinners:

Not much to add here because I had a Goodfood Delivery this week to work through. BUT here are recipes I have planned out for next week:

• THE STEW: this is my favourite pantry meal any time of the year and quarantine is no exception. It’s so simple, so flavourful, and so easy. 

  • Side note: I predict as I update this list it will become 50% Alison Roman recipes.

• I have some broccoli and leeks (and weirdly a container of heavy cream) in my fridge that need to be used up, so I’m thinking about making this Alison Roman Spicy Baked Pasta next week. 

  • Side note: AR count to 2. 

• I also have a cabbage that I’ve been using a FaceTime phone prop this last week. Might make these Stuffed Cabbage Leaves to use that up. But also thinking of holding onto my cabbage since it lasts for a long time. I’ll report back.

I haven’t had to tap into my freezer or lentil/bean reserves much yet, but I have many thoughts to share when I do! Stay safe and stay healthy - xoxo Kaleigh

I love you, Kosher Salt

hey hey, good looking

In the theme of Valentine’s Day, I had to write a post about my true love in cooking: kosher salt. Most specifically, Diamond Crystal kosher salt. I was first exposed to kosher salt in 2015 when I purchased Christina Tosi’s Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook, which changed my life in terms of how I approach seasoning in baking and subsequently cooking.

All salts are not created equal and they all affect the flavour of your food in different ways. People tend to shy away from using salt in their cooking for fear of it tasting “too salty” but learning how to use it properly will truly change how your food tastes. Many of us grew up with iodized table salt, which is likely why we associate salt with a “salty”, metallic taste. PLEASE THROW OUT YOUR TABLE SALT. Marie Kondo it from your life. It cannot and will not spark joy, it will only spark metallic tasting food. Replace it with kosher salt and joy will be everywhere.

Why kosher salt?

The size of the Diamond Crystal kosher salt allows it to dissolve quickly into the surface of your food, which makes it easy to taste and adjust as you go without worrying about oversalting. Fine sea salt is also a good option for everyday cooking but I find it doesn’t dissolve as evenly and therefore leads to more “salty” bites.

Practice Makes Perfect

Practice seasoning your food using the best tool in the kitchen available to you - your hands. I always season food by picking up with salt between my fingers, rather than using a measuring spoon. Over time I have perfected my “pinch” with my left hand (non-dominant hand) – I can now consistently pinch 1/16 of a tsp every time. Repeatedly pinch up salt until you learn the feeling of this measurement. I practiced by pinching and dropping into a ¼ tsp measure until I consistently pinched 4 times to get the ¼ tsp.

Want to learn more about salt?

I highly recommend picking up Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat from your local library or purchasing it for keepsies. Nosrat spends a whole chapter deep diving on salt and it is a resource I reference often in the kitchen.

Where to buy Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt:

• Amazon

• Your local bulk store – in Toronto I have found it on the shelf at Bulk Heaven and Domino Foods in St. Lawrence Market

• Rumor has it the Italian Market on Young in Halifax sells it

• Leave a comment of where you have found Diamond Cystal kosher salt in your city!